Dow futures showed signs of recovery after moving into correction territory in late trading yesterday. This was largely in response to congressional efforts to avoid a government shutdown.

Congress' slow progress on passing a new funding bill led to a government shutdown at midnight on Thursday. However, both Chambers of Congress passed a new bill in the early morning hours to keep the government open for another two years.

Market volatility is scary… and we’ve got the perfect solution. Click here and sign up for our Stock Market Crash Insurance alerts to receive free, real-time updates on how best to protect your money.

The Top Stock Market Stories for Friday

The Dow is on track to experience its largest weekly decline since October 2008. Markets remain very volatile due to the uptick in expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will need to hike interest rates aggressively in order to tame an overheating U.S. economy. The Dow is now officially in correction territory following the sharp downturn this week.

It could be a very tough day for U.S. shipping companies. Shares of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) fell Friday. The downturn came after Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) announced it will launch its own delivery subsidiary for businesses. "Shipping with Amazon" will launch this week in Los Angeles and is projected to give AMZN a significant market share of the global logistics business.

Gold prices are on pace for their second straight weekly loss. The price of gold fell to $1,317 per ounce due to a stronger U.S. dollar. The greenback has risen over the last two weeks, as markets anticipate an interest rate hike by the Fed in the near future. Yesterday, the Bank of England also announced plans to increase interest rates at a faster pace than economists had anticipated.

Crude oil prices slumped in pre-market hours due to rising U.S. production and concerns about an increasing glut of crude across North America. Oil prices are now on pace to experience an 8% drop in prices this week over increasing concerns that the growing glut could expand across the globe after OPEC announced plans to increase global production by 700,000 barrels per day over the next four years. WTI crude oil price today dipped 1.4%, while Brent crude slipped 0.9%.

Stocks to Watch Today: NVDA, EXPE, QCOM, AVGO

Shares of NVIDIA Corp. (Nasdaq: NVDA) rallied more than 7.5% after the technology giant topped Wall Street earnings expectations. NVDA stock popped after the firm reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.78 on top of $2.911 billion in revenue. Analysts expected far less, just $1.16 per share on $2.67 billion in revenue.

Shares of Expedia Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE) crashed in after-hours trading. The online travel company saw shares plunge more than 19% after it reported a dismal earnings report for the fourth quarter. The firm reported EPS of $0.84 on top of $2.32 billion in revenue. Wall Street expected EPS of $1.16 on $2.36 billion.

Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) has rejected the largest takeover bid in the history of the U.S. markets. The tech giant turned down a $121 billion takeover offer from Broadcom Ltd. (Nasdaq: AVGO) due to valuation concerns. Though Broadcom said that the bid was its "best and final" offer, QCOM hopes to secure a meeting to iron out differences and secure a higher bid for its shareholders.

Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, and consultant with degrees from Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Purdue, and Indiana University. He is a seasoned financial and political risk analyst, with a focus on stocks, hedge funds, private equity, blockchain, and housing policy. He has conducted risk assessment projects for clients in 27 countries, and consulted on policy and financial operations for some of the nation's largest financial institutions, including a $1.5 trillion credit fund, a $43 billion credit and auto loan giant, as well as two of the largest Wall Street banks by assets under management.

Garrett joined Money Map Press as an economist and researcher in 2011, specializing in alternative strategies with an emphasis on fundamental and technical analysis.

By submitting your email address you will receive a free subscription to Money Morning and receive Money Morning Profit Alerts. You will also receive occasional special offers from Money Map Press and our affiliates. You can unsubscribe at anytime and we encourage you to read more about our privacy policy.

You can view our VQScore top-rated stocks now by entering your email below:

By submitting your email address you will receive a free subscription to VQScore and occasional special offers from Money Map Press and our affiliates. You can unsubscribe at anytime and we encourage you to read more about our privacy policy.

Today's Markets

DJIA95.21(0.37%)25,585.69

NASDAQ8.73(0.11%)7,637.01

S&P3.82(0.14%)2,826.06

FDX0.66(0.41%)159.93

UPS0.32(0.33%)95.85

AMZN7.80(0.43%)1,823.28

NVDA-2.17(-1.47%)145.15

EXPE0.52(0.45%)115.92

ABOUT MONEY MORNING

Money Morning gives you access to a team of ten market experts with more than 250 years of combined investing experience – for free. Our experts – who have appeared on FOXBusiness, CNBC, NPR, and BloombergTV – deliver daily investing tips and stock picks, provide analysis with actions to take, and answer your biggest market questions. Our goal is to help our millions of e-newsletter subscribers and Moneymorning.com visitors become smarter, more confident investors.

By submitting your email address you will receive a free subscription to Money Morning and receive Money Morning Profit Alerts. You will also receive occasional special offers from Money Map Press and our affiliates. You can unsubscribe at anytime and we encourage you to read more about our privacy policy.